Some thoughts on the making of the Uzbek nation

Abstract

Ingcborg Baldauf, Some thoughts on the making of the Uzbek nation. The natsional'noe razmezhevanie in Central Asia (1924-1925) aimed at the formation of « national republics and territories. » In the cases of Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Turkmens, and to a certain degree Tadzhiks, the question of ethnic coherence and self-denomination of the emerging nations could be solved without major problems. The rest of the sedentary, semi-nomadic, and nomadic Turkic-speaking Turkestanians, larger by number than any of the other groups, had never in history formed an ethnic or national unit ; there existed several pre-modern concepts of self-identification based on regional, tribal, or even religious definition, none of them depicting congruency with the European romantic, language-centered concept of a nation. The introduction of this concept by Lenin-Stalinist national politics made it necessary to define a new nationality. Out of the prenational identilicatory concepts Sart, Chagatay, Muslim, Turk, and Uzbek, « Uzbek » was chosen to give a name to the nation, and to its territory, the Uzbekistan SSR The paper traces some of the problems the nation-builders found themselves confronted with in the process of shaping the Uzbek socialist nation.

Boundaries of Historiogrphy in the Post-Soviet Space

“…Bir yandan aynı topraklar üzerinde yaşayanlardan bir Özbek ulusu inşa edilirken diğer yandan -hangi normlar üzerinden yapıldığı bilinmeyen bir biçimde-yine aynı toprakların sakinlerinden Sartlar tarihten silindi (Bkz. Baldauf, 1991).…”

Heritage Regimes and the State

“…It defined new regional areas with provincial governments during the 1920s in an effort to create clear administrative structures. These were partly based on ethnolinguistic borders or on the political structures of the former principal feudal territories (Khanat) (Baldauf 1991;Hiro 2009). Demarcated and officially founded in 1925 (Bell 1999: 2), the newly created national republic of Uzbekistan faced the problem of inventing its own nationhood inside the former Soviet frontiers.…”

Nasjonale republikker i Sentral-Asia: Sovjetisk politikk og lokale forutsetninger

“…Historikeren Adeeb Khalid har i en studie av den såkalte Jadid-bevegelsen og dennes prosjekt for kulturell reform i Sentral-Asia i de to første tiårene av forrige århundre vist at identitetsmønsteret i Sentral-Asia var i bevegelse (Khalid 1998). Mens enkelte har lagt vekt på at usbekisk identitet snarere var et resultat av sovjetisk politisk manipulasjon enn av reelle sosiale prosesser (Schoeberlein-Engel 1994, Baldhauf 1991, understreker Khalid at den moderne usbekiske identiteten hadde sterke førrevolusjonaere røtter. Dette var en identitet som hentet mye av sitt innhold i tradisjonelle sosiale strukturer i Sentral-Asia.…”